


For A Long Time

by onelargecoffeepls



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Canon Compliant, Post-Canon, Romance, Songfic, it's all about the PINING
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-16 23:42:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29583924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onelargecoffeepls/pseuds/onelargecoffeepls
Summary: "It never was going to be anyone else, was it?"Seven short glimpses into Donna falling in love with Josh based on "Love You For A Long Time" by Maggie Rogers.
Relationships: Josh Lyman/Donna Moss
Comments: 13
Kudos: 119





	For A Long Time

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my first fanfic that I've put out into the world since I was 17, and in true 2008 fashion, it's a songfic! (Are those even still cool anymore?) Hope you enjoy!

_Came in like a vision from the old west wind  
Like a bright new dream that I was stepping in  
I saw your face and I knew it was a sign  
And I still think about that moment all of the time _

“I think I could be good at this.” Donna pleads. “I think you might find me valuable.” 

Her heart beats rapidly under her pressed white blouse. She spent the last of her tip money from the restaurant in Madison on a whole new wardrobe full of suits and neat sweater sets. That’s what they wore in politics, right? Sweater sets? 

She kicks herself for not helping address mailers with the rest of the volunteers, instead wandering over to pick up the phone that wouldn’t stop ringing in the room next to them.

She knew this would happen, but she didn’t know it would happen so quickly. She was still reeling at the pace that Josh was able to unwrap her story and knock down every defense she had put up walking in the building today. This was supposed to be her fresh start, her new life away from her hometown and her useless ex-boyfriend. 

She holds Josh’s gaze. She’s transported back to elementary school staring contests where she refused to be the one who blinked first. 

Josh’s face had been unreadable during their whole conversation, letting his voice convey his apathy towards her while also being incredibly defensive of the campaign. He’s still stern now, holding tight to his judgement of her. 

And then a shift. 

His jaw unclenches, and his eyes have a slight glint to them now. She sees a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. 

The phone rings behind her, snapping her back down to reality, but she doesn’t dare look away. 

“Go ahead.” There’s a hint of amusement in his voice. 

Her hand shakes as she picks up the phone. “Bartlet for America, Josh Lyman’s office.” She says into the receiver, trying to force out as much false confidence as possible.

She looks at him. She’s half-listening to the person on the other end as they ask about some quote the governor gave last week at a fundraiser. 

She stands and grabs a pen to write down a phone number on a scrap of paper. When she looks back around, he’s removing the staff badge from around his neck and presenting it to her.

She takes it, holding the plastic card delicately like the most expensive diamond necklace in the world. Josh steps out without another word, and Donna watches him leave.

The voice in her ear continues, but she’s not paying attention. 

She focuses on the moment around her. On the badge in her hands, the way the receiver is pressed against her shoulder, and the look on Josh’s face. She commits it to memory before turning her attention back to the phone. 

“I’m sorry, can you repeat that?” She says, not having to fake her confidence anymore. 

___________________

_You know that I could never make this up  
I found the reason I'm not giving up  
I felt the fever and I knew he was mine  
Oh I, I'm gonna love you for a long time _

“Hey, staff meeting. Come on.” Josh says, popping his head into their small shared cubicle. 

She’s confused, and checks his schedule. 

“No, this is senior staff.” She replies, shaking her head. “General is tomorrow before we have the breakfast thing.” 

“No, I want you for senior staff. I want to introduce you. Come on.” He pulls away from the door frame while she sits in her seat wide-eyed. 

When he realizes that she’s not following, he shuffles back.

“What’s the hold-up? Let’s go.”

“I can’t go to a senior staff meeting like this!” She gestures downwards at her clothes. 

Living her whole life in Wisconsin and then making the sudden change to drive to New Hampshire hadn’t given her much experience with the South. When she heard they were going to be spending a couple of days in Myrtle Beach, she ran out and bought sundresses and t-shirts not realizing that beaches can be cold in February too. 

She had spent the week freezing to death in the corner wearing a pair of shorts she had spent too much money on and one of Josh’s Harvard sweatshirts that he was kind enough to give her after he noticed her shivering. 

“What? You look fine. No one’s gonna notice.” He leans in and pulls her out of her chair by her forearm. 

“Josh, please!” She falls into step with him. “I can’t meet the governor like this! I have no makeup on, I think this spot on this sweatshirt has been here since the 80s, I—“ 

“Donna,” He interrupts. “Our speechwriters have been up for 26 hours getting ready for tonight, and I can’t remember the last time I changed out of these jeans. You showed up with wet hair this morning, so I know that you had time for a shower which is more than I can say for a lot of people right now.” 

They reach the door to a makeshift office, and he turns back to her.

“You look fine. You look like you’ve been working hard, which is all that matters to him.” 

He grins down at her, and she relaxes a little. She wonders why that’s been happening more and more lately. 

He pushes into the office and charges forward, instantly taking command of the room. Donna’s become accustomed to the way he swaps so neatly between moments of arrogance and ones of great kindness. Just last week, he mocked her all morning after learning that she took five sugars in her coffee, but he still showed up every day after that with a coffee prepared for her just the way she liked. 

She hovers just inside the doorway and pulls the door shut quietly behind her, trying to not draw attention. 

The tall red-haired assistant is passing out folders. Donna doesn’t remember her name, but she gives her a small wave as she leaves to go wrangle the latest batch of volunteers. 

“Can we help you?” 

Leo McGarry’s voice is rough and stern and leaves Donna frozen in place. She looks at all of them. The senior staff are arranged in a tight semi-circle given the close confines of the room. The governor stands at cramped desk looking through the folder he was just given.

“Oh right, Leo,” Josh perks up. He’s standing at the far corner of the room, and gestures for her to come closer. She timidly walks to join the group at the very edge. 

“I just wanted to get everyone acquainted with my new assistant, Miss Donnatella Moss.” 

“Donnatella.” Says the tall woman with curly hair Donna used to see on TV before she joined the campaign. “That’s a pretty name.” 

“Just Donna’s fine.” Donna smiles. 

“She joined us about a week ago in New Hampshire.” Josh continues. “She’s now on full-time staff and will be coming along with us for the rest of the campaign to help me out.” 

She meets Josh’s eyes, and he gives her a small nod, signaling that the worst is done.

“Did you go to Harvard as well?” The governor asks before she has a chance to leave. 

He peers at her above his glasses, still holding the folder in his hands. She hadn’t even noticed him looking at her.

“He went to Harvard.” The governor gestures towards Josh with the folder. “Is that why he hired you? Good old fashioned nepotism?” 

The comment elicits smirks from around the room. 

His question confuses her, but then she remembers the old stained sweatshirt that she’s been wearing for the last four days. She feels her ears go red. 

“Oh! Uh…no. I didn’t.” She stammers. “I actually—I…” 

“Donna did a couple years at Wisconsin-Madison.” Josh cuts in. “But she had to take some time off for personal reasons. I loaned her my sweatshirt because my office could double for a meat locker.” 

Donna glances over at him, grateful that one of them was quick on their feet today. She wasn’t ashamed of her past but she wasn’t ready for her story to become this public this fast. She was too focused on making sure her place here was well-earned before anyone could question it. 

“But what’s really important is that she’s already proven herself very adept at managing my day-to-day. So far it’s been a lot of scheduling meetings and taking notes, but I’m sure the rest will be a piece of cake for her.” 

“Did you write that one-pager on farming subsidies for us last week?” A handsome man in glasses, not too many years older than Donna, speaks up. 

“Yes, I did.” Donna nods. 

“I knew Josh didn’t do that. It was actually one page long and didn’t contain any cursing or insults to the farmers.” 

This gets a laugh out of the rest of the room, so Donna politely joins in, anxiety still coursing through her. 

“Thank you. I’m happy to help.” 

“Say, how attached are you to him? We could use another pair of hands over on the speech-writing team.” 

“Not so fast.” Josh crosses the room in a couple long strides. He comes in close to her side and puts an arm around her shoulders. “I saw her first. She’s mine; go find your own assistant.” 

A flush starts to creep into her cheeks as she breaks into a wide smile. She likes the warmth of his arm against her back and the grip of his hand on her shoulder. 

“Donna, do you have an opinion on this?” Mr. McGarry asks. 

Donna looks up at Josh. She replays his words in her head, ‘She’s mine, she’s mine, she’s mine,” getting a small thrill each time they pass through.

“Sorry.” She says, unable to get the smile off her face.“I’m his.” 

______________________

_And in the morning when I'm waking up  
I swear that you're the first thing that I'm thinking of  
I feel it in my body, know it in my mind  
Oh I, I'm gonna love you for a long time_

“Hi, there should have been a reservation under Gault?” Donna asks the hostess. She’s out of breath and pushes her sweaty hair from her face. It’s late August in Madison, and the air is hot and humid. 

“It was at 7:30, and I’m super late—“

“Follow me.” The hostess is uninterested and leads Donna down the dimly lit hallway to the crowded dining room. 

Stephanie sits at a small table in the middle of the room and takes a sip from her half-empty wine glass. Her face lights up when she catches Donna’s eye.

“Hey!” She calls out, standing to hug her. 

“I am so sorry! I know this isn’t like me at all.” Donna sits down and takes a long drink of water. Most of the ice has already melted and the outside of the glass is cold and wet. 

“I’m just glad you made it.” Stephanie replies. “When you called, I could barely hear you for all the yelling in the background.”

“It’s been a day.” A waiter comes by to get Donna’s drink order. 

“The largest glass of white wine you can legally sell me.” She tells him to his amusement. 

“Everything going okay over there?” Stephanie asks. 

“I got tied up, and Josh was supposed to drive me, but then he got pulled into a meeting, and so I had to literally run over here, and I’m going to have to go back if you can believe that. I mean it’s normal for me now, I guess. Crazy for anyone else.” 

“Congrats to your guy, by the way. No one in the poli-sci department thought he would actually get the nomination, but he pulled it out.

Stephanie pushes a basket of bread towards her which Donna happily accepts. Her lunch today was a bag of Chex-Mix and a Diet Coke.

“Speaking of, are you getting used to saying ‘Dr. Gault' out loud yet?” She asks in between bites. 

Stephanie laughs. 

“No, not yet, but my thesis advisor thinks I’ll be able to defend in the spring.” 

Donna always forgot the age difference between her and Stephanie. Donna had a thing for older men, and when Brian dumped her, it was Stephanie who noticed her crying during their Cold War Europe lecture. The senior gave this skinny blonde freshman tissues and bought her a coffee afterwards where they realized they had both been heartbroken by the same jerk. 

“Well, I want to hear all about it.” Donna says, gleefully taking her glass of wine from the waiter. “I’m off the clock for the next hour and a half, and the last thing I want to think about is work.” 

The time flies by with the two women ordering another round of drinks and plates of food. During dessert, they finally let the conversation lull as they split a slice of cheesecake. 

“You really have to go back to the office after this?” Stephanie asks, plucking a blackberry off the top of the cake. 

Donna nods slowly and lets her eyes close for a moment. The wine and heavy food has made her brain feel nice and foggy. 

“We have a rally with this big speech tomorrow. We’re going to introduce a bunch of policy stuff, and Josh needs me to help him get some polls out for after it. It won’t be the first time he keeps me there until two in the morning and it won’t be the last.” 

Stephanie shifts in her seat awkwardly. 

Donna raises an eyebrow. 

“You okay?” 

“Yeah, it’s nothing.” She doesn’t meet Donna’s eye. “It’s just….” 

Stephanie lets out a loud sigh. 

“I didn’t want to make this a thing, but…” 

“But what?” Donna sits up straighter as her mind clears. 

“Is there…. Is there anything happening between you and Josh?” 

Alarm bells start ringing in Donna’s ears. Her face gets hot and a sick feeling starts growing in the pit of her stomach. 

“What!?” She practically yells. “No, of course not! Why would you think that?” 

“Donna, I—“ 

“It’s Josh!” Donna interrupts. “You met him today, remember? Loud with the messy hair and baggy shirt? Running around with a crazed look in his eyes? You really think I’m messing around with—“ 

“Donna listen to me!” 

She backs off, leaning into her chair. 

Stephanie lets her shoulders relax, and looks away as she chooses her next words. 

“I don’t know if you realized it, but every story, every update you gave me tonight about what you’ve been doing for the last six months had to do with Josh.

“You somehow even managed to make you getting back together with Michael for two weeks about how Josh acted when you got back!” 

Donna scoffs. 

“Steph, he’s my boss! And it’s not like I work a regular 9 to 5, we spend a lot of time together.” 

“Most people don’t eat lunch with their boss every single day. Or sit next to them on every cross-country plane ride. Or let them sleep in their bathtub!” 

“Hey, that was one time!” Donna leans forward again. “It was Sam’s birthday, and Josh always overestimates how much he can drink.” 

“See! That’s what I’m talking about!” 

Donna picks at the stem of her wine glass and takes a deep breath, letting some of the tension between the two of them fade.

“I promise you, there’s nothing happening between me and Josh. He’s my boss, and yeah, maybe we’re friendlier than most, but it’s a strange situation. The more I know Josh, the better I am at my job.” 

“Donna, I believe you when you say nothing physical is going on.” Stephanie reaches over and takes her hand. 

“But tomorrow morning when you wake up, I want you to notice the first thing you think about. Is it going to work to do your job, or is it seeing Josh?” 

The rest of the cheesecake sits uneaten as the waiter arrives with their bill. 

She hugs Stephanie goodbye in her car outside of Bartlet for Wisconsin, the words from the end of dinner still spinning in her head. 

The night is long, but she tries her best to avoid looking directly at Josh and clear her mind of anything that isn’t related to polling. When she’s finally released, she gives him a quick nod and slings her bag over her shoulder, letting her legs auto-pilot her out of the room. 

She’s stopped by Josh taking her hand and pulling her back into their office. His eyes are wide, and he stands close to her. On a normal day, she wouldn’t think anything of it, but tonight, it’s the only thing she can think about. 

“Hey, are you okay?” His voice is quiet and full of concern. 

“Why do you ask?” She looks into his eyes, doing her best to pretend like everything’s normal and regrets it instantly. 

“You’ve just been a little distant tonight. Quiet. Which, y’know, is fine because we probably shaved off an hour by not joking around as much.” He smirks so that the corners of his eyes crinkle and something deep inside her chest flutters. 

“But you were acting different when you came back from dinner, and I didn’t know if something happened with your friend tonight that made you upset or…” 

“It’s fine.” She breaks eye-contact knowing that staying here with him looking at her like that is how mistakes would be made. 

“Dinner was really heavy, and we had wine and cheesecake, so I’m just really exhausted.” 

“Okay.” He says with a sigh, and a tiny wave of relief washes over her. “Get some sleep, and I’ll see you in the morning.” 

He moves to sit down at his desk, and she turns to leave. 

“Was the cheesecake good?” He asks from behind her at a normal volume. 

She looks back and nods, giving him a slight smile. 

“Yeah, they put blackberries on it.”

“I’ll have to see if we can stop by before we head out tomorrow so I can try it.” He smiles back at her, and Donna walks away quickly before she finds an excuse to stay longer. 

She gets a cab back to their hotel where she undresses and collapses into bed in her underwear. It feels like she’s just closed her eyes when the phone rings with her wake-up call. She sits up groggily and rubs the heels of her hands into her eyes. 

She gets her bearings, and her brain begins to turn on. Her thoughts come in a neat order. 

First is that she needs to shower, but remember to dry her hair so Josh won’t tease her for showing up to work with it wet. 

Next is how she should wear the pink shirt today because Josh said it looked nice on her when she wore it two weeks ago. 

After that, she thinks about how they have the speech today at two, where she’ll sit next to Josh and he’ll get too excited during the good parts and whisper edits that he wants to make on the next campaign stop and he’ll meet her parents and tell them what a great addition Donna has been to the campaign and that they should be very proud of her. 

Then, the memory of Josh reaching out and taking her hand last night. 

Josh’s face when he asked her if she was okay.

Josh’s warm brown eyes that crinkle when he smiles. 

Josh. Josh. Josh. 

Josh. 

Donna stares at the wall, fully awake now as the realization settles in. 

_Shit._

____________________

_Oh, I never knew it, yeah, you took me by surprise  
While I was getting lost so deep inside your diamond eyes  
So many things that I still wanna say  
And if devotion is a river, then I'm floating away_

At one point while caring for so-called, “Dr. Freeride,” Donna worked two jobs while also doing all the cooking and cleaning for their tiny studio apartment in Madison.

That was nothing compared to this. 

It’s been two years since she first joined the Bartlet team, and she thought she would hit a peak by now. She naively believed that after the first hundred days, she could relax and not have to be on high-alert for 18 hours a day. But the first hundred days turned into a year with no signs of stopping. 

Her social life is practically non-existent. 

When she moved to DC, she signed up for bookclubs and mixers for so-called “young professionals” only to have the demands of her job dominate almost every aspect of her personal life. Her only real friends at this point are her roommate Alisha and her two cats. 

She does date around. Mostly men she meets at parties thrown by Alisha’s friends or the random flirtation while at a bar with White House staff. She thinks that maybe if she meets someone outside of politics, her job and certain people in it will become less of a priority for her. However, much like everything else in her life these days, after a few dates, it becomes hard for her to schedule them in when matters of world peace have to come first, and they eventually stop calling. 

She’s exhausted all the time despite her forceful attempts at relaxation. 

The second she gets home from work, it’s either straight into the bath or into bed. On nights when Alisha’s not working, they’ll spilt a bottle of wine with a bad movie and a cat curled up on each of their laps. Donna’s always appreciative of her roommate’s efforts, but she spends half the evening worrying about how she has to be back at work in seven hours. 

There are days when she can’t do it anymore. 

Days where her vision is blurry from almost twelve hours of looking at her computer screen. When her hair is frizzy from the downpour she walked through in the morning, or when the humidity is so thick that her makeup dissolves before she even gets to the office. 

Days when the inside of her wrist is covered in ink from making notes to herself after she runs out of Post-Its. 

Days when she’s tired, hungry, annoyed, and the only thing she can think about is how soft her bed would feel right now. 

Days when she thinks that two years of working for him has been plenty of time. She’s done more in two years than most people do in lifetimes, and what does she have to show for it? Just years of missed Christmases and birthdays. Years of having no friends outside of work and no serious boyfriends. Years of tension headaches, ugly pantsuits, and shoes that hurt her feet.

He’ll call her into his office and she thinks that this is it. This when she finally tells him she’s done. Devotion to one person can only take you so far, and she’s reached the limit. 

Then he looks up at her. His eyes sparkle in the dim light of his office. He gives her a dimpled grin and sets her up for a wildly inappropriate come-back, and she remembers why she’s here. 

_________________

_And in the morning when you pick me up  
And all the world is quiet, 'cept the mourning dove  
I feel it in my body, know it in my mind  
Oh I, I'm gonna love you for a long time_

“Come on, come on, please.” Donna mumbles into her cell phone. “Please pick up.” 

Donna shivers on the sidewalk. She’s bundled up in the warmest things she owns, but somehow the wind off the Potomac slices through her down parka. 

The snow and ice from the night of the Inauguration still cling to every surface a week later, temperature not rising to any point that might allow it to thaw. Donna swears it was warmer that night when she came out to this exact place wearing only a ballgown and heels, but she thinks the way Josh was looking at her might have helped. 

“Hey, what’s up?” Josh’s voice finally comes through the other end of the receiver. 

“Ah, thank God!” She exclaims. “Have you left your apartment yet?” 

“No, I have not.” He replies. “And if you’re calling me to get out of work today, fat chance. We gotta get ready for California.” 

“No, see, I’m calling for the exact opposite reason.” She sounds almost giddy. “My car won’t start, and I need you to pick me up.” 

“Wait, why do I have to pick you up?”

“My car won’t start.” 

“Why won’t your car start?” 

“I don’t know. I think it got too cold or something. It just keeps turning over.” 

“Take the metro.” 

“My station’s closed for the rest of the month. They’re doing track work, and they’re just busing people to Farragut. It would take me a shorter amount of time to walk to work which is not happening considering that I think I would turn into a popsicle in the process.” 

“Okay but why do I in particular need to come get you?” 

“It’s on the way for you.” 

“It is not on the way for me!” His voice rises an octave on the last half of his sentence. 

“It’s just driving up to Adams Morgan, Josh! You take 22nd all the way up until you hit Florida, and then you’re practically on my street. And then Connecticut’s a straight shot right to the White House.” 

“I’m not even going to ask how you know that that easily.” 

“Josh!” She yells, getting annoyed at how much he seems to be enjoying this while she loses feeling in her toes. 

“Fine! Okay alright!” He lets out an exasperated sigh. “I’ll be there in 5 minutes. Do you want a bagel?” 

She does an embarrassing little victory dance and is happy that it’s too early for anyone else to see. 

“Yes!” 

“Alright, then make it 15. Now go inside before you freeze to death.” 

She ducks back inside her entrance way, and blows warm air into her hands waiting for Josh’s car to arrive. 

He manages to make it there in 12, and he beeps the horn a couple of times, once again waking up her neighbors. 

She carefully walks across the icy sidewalk and into his passenger seat. He has the heat cranked, and she removes her hat and gloves to press her hands against the air vent. 

“I was worried I was gonna pull up and a snowman would be outside waiting for me.” He jokes. “Bagels are in the floorboard, and I got you a coffee. Cream and five whole sugars.” 

She smiles up at him and reaches for the bag at her feet. 

“What’d you get me?” She asks, rifling through. 

“Your usual. Sausage, egg, and muenster on everything.” 

She removes the wrapping and takes a bite, letting it warm her from the inside out. She lets out a small “hmm” as Josh turns off her block. 

“God,” she says as she chews. “Do you ever remember it being this cold here? I thought I left this nonsense behind me in Wisconsin.” 

“You’ve just gotten soft.” 

“Sounds like what my dad would say.” 

“Not me though. New England-strong. I could walk out here in just a fleece jacket and a pair of Dockers and be perfectly comfortable.” 

“The fact that you dug out the mittens CJ bought you for Christmas last year says otherwise.” 

As he pulls through DuPont Circle, the sun begins to peak out though the windshield. Josh holds up a hand to cover his eyes. 

“You want your sunglasses?” She takes a sip of coffee and flips her sunvisor down. 

“Yeah, look in the back. I lost my old ones and had to get a new pair. They’re in one of the pockets in my bag.” 

She reaches back behind her and digs through his stuffed backpack. She pulls out a handful of receipts and a few Post-It notes, before finding a pair of black aviators in the front pocket.

“You should clean this thing out.” She passes them to him. “It’s rivaling your desk right now for most trash in one location.” 

“‘Most trash in one location’ you say?” He flashes her a cheesy smile. “What I like to call Congress.” 

She laughs in spite of herself, and he turns back to the road, pleased at her reaction. 

She lets her eyes linger on him. The sun hits him just right, casting a shadow over the line of his jaw and bringing out the red in his hair. 

For a moment, she’s overwhelmed by the comfortable intimacy of it all. Driving to work together early in the morning. Looking for his sunglasses in his backpack. The breakfast and coffee waiting for her. The bad jokes and easy banter.

She thinks back to just one week ago, when he threw snowballs at her window and lectured her to no end, but somehow managed to cap it all off with a dumb-struck look on his face as he said she looked amazing. She rode the entire way back to the White House on his lap with tingles going up and down her spine trying to rationalize if it would be worth it to quit her job just so she could take him home with her.

She sighs and sinks back into the warmth of her seat. 

It never was going to be anyone else, was it? 

__________________

_Ooh, don't slow down now, gonna break me down  
Keep your hands in my hair, keep your mouth on my mouth  
Don't slow this down, never let me go  
Baby, don't you wanna see how far this thing can go?_

‘It’s happening.” She thinks. ‘This is really happening.’ 

Josh has her pressed up against the wall just inside the door of his hotel room. His mouth is warm and frantic against hers and his hands tangle in her hair. She grips his shoulders trying desperately to get him that much closer to her. It’s oddly similar to every inappropriate day-dream she had in her 20s. 

She decides that clothes are redundant at this point, and reaches up to loosen his tie and starts in on the buttons of his shirt. He tugs off her sweater in one fluid motion, separating just long enough for her to slip it over her head. Then he’s pulling her away from the wall and moving her backwards through space. She slips out of her shoes, paying careful attention to not let his lips leave hers. She hears the clink of his belt hitting the floor before she tumbles onto her back on the bed, pulling him down with her. 

His mouth moves across her face, down her jaw, to her neck and shoulders. He hasn’t shaved in God knows how many days, and his stubble scratches against her skin. 

“Careful.” She breathes as his teeth drag along her collarbone. “Lou will kill me if I go on CNN tomorrow looking like I just climbed out of the backseat of the quarterback’s car.” 

He moves down her body, tracing kisses along her throat, chest, ribcage, stopping at the top of her skirt.

“Believe me,” he laughs, unzipping and throwing it off to the side. “Lou is the last thing on my mind right now.” 

He starts rolling her pantyhose down her legs, ripping them almost instantly. She bursts out laughing. 

“Smooth.” She enjoys how she’s still able to joke around despite current circumstances. 

He sits up and tosses the wadded ball of ruined nylon over his shoulder.

“Yeah, that part always went better in my head.” He strips off his white t-shirt. 

He leans back down and kisses her stomach, running his tongue over the peaks of her hipbones. 

“In your head?” She says coyly. She threads her hands through his hair. “Does that mean you’ve thought about this before?” 

He makes a muffled sound against her skin. 

“Many, many times.” 

He moves back up to kiss her deeply, but she breaks apart. 

“Wait. Are you serious?” 

She can’t believe what she’s hearing. 

“Yeah I mean…” He pauses, giving her a shy half-smile. “I’ve wanted to kiss you every day for…I don’t even know how long. Years now.” 

“Years?” She blinks. 

“Donna, it’s—“ His voice is just above a whisper. 

“Do you mean during the campaign?” She can hear her voice growing more and more panicked, but she can’t stop herself. She has to know. “But what about Amy? Or was it with Mandy too? Or was it just when I got hurt or was it when I was working for Russell…”

“Donna.” He interrupts her. 

He rests his forehead against her chest with a sigh.

A rush of anxiety hits her because she thinks she’s ruined it. The thing she’s wanted for years gone because she couldn’t keep a single thought to herself. 

When he lifts his head again, he has a look on his face that Donna’s never seen before. If she didn’t know better, she would think he was embarrassed. 

“Yes to… all of them.” He says softly. 

“When I was with Mandy. And with Amy, because hell knows you were dating other men and I didn’t want to ruin your career by turning it into some big scandal by having your boss come onto you. 

“And when you were working for Russell, I told you that I missed you every day and I didn’t mean because I missed you working for me. ” 

“And especially after Gaza.” 

He leans in very close. His eyes are dark. 

“Donna, you have no idea how worried I was. I almost told you right then and there in that hospital room when you woke up, but I chickened out because I was scared of how I felt and the safest thing I thought I could do was act like nothing happened. 

“I can’t give you an exact date for it, but all I know is that one morning I woke up and you were the first thing I thought of and it hasn’t stopped since.” 

He starts kissing her again, slower, softer, sweeter, but her head is spinning.

There were times through the years when all she wanted to do was lean across the space between them and press her lips to his, and he would have let her. He would have kissed her back. He loved her back. 

He notices her sudden rigidity, and pulls away again. 

“You okay?”

When she doesn't respond, he continues.

“Hey, if I freaked you out with all that,” his voice is gentle and understanding, “I’m really sorry. We can stop, it’s—“

“1998.” She blurts out. 

“Wha—“

“When we were in Wisconsin in August in 1998, I woke up one morning and you were the only thing I could think about, and it never stopped for me either.” 

He gazes at her, awe-struck. 

It dawns on her then that he had no idea that she felt the same way all this time. 

She smiles up at his slack-jawed face.

He starts to speak, but she pulls him down for a desperate, furious kiss, and she feels him laugh against her mouth before wrapping her in his arms. 

A few minutes later, her skin is on fire and she balls his hair up into her fist and gasps his name into his neck. He’s whispering terrible, wonderful things into her ear, and she knows that there’s no going back for them. 

She’s loved him far too much for far too long to stop now.  
____________________________

_And in the morning when you wake me up  
I know that forever could never be enough  
I feel it in my body, know it in my mind  
Oh I, I'm gonna love you for a long time_

She’s woken up by an arm snaking across her waist. A warm body presses against her back, and she smiles as her hair is moved out of the way and replaced with light kisses across the back of her neck. 

“Morning.” Josh whispers into her ear. “Did I wake you?” 

“Like you weren’t trying.” 

She rolls over to face him, and snuggles into the crook of his neck as his arms curl around her. 

“What time is it?” She yawns. “It’s still dark out.” 

“Little after seven. It’s raining.” 

“We need to be at work soon.” She closes her eyes again, fighting the urge to go back to sleep. 

“We got a little while.” He kisses the top of her head. “The president got back last night and I decided to let him sleep in for a bit.” 

“I’m sure he and the First Lady made good use of their extra half hour.” 

“Hey, they were only apart for four days.” 

He shifts down so that their foreheads are touching. 

“It wasn’t like that trip to Asia back in the summer. Six countries in two weeks, hot as hell with no air conditioning and a time difference that made it impossible to even get a little phone action.” 

He kisses her firmly as she smiles, remembering the way Josh practically broke down their door the night he arrived home from that trip and whisked her away to their bedroom with barely a hello. 

They had been living together for almost a year now. It was an unspoken assumption made during their time in Hawaii that she would move into his apartment since CJ wasn’t going to be in DC for very much longer and the girl from Treasury had already repainted Donna’s walls an ugly shade of green. On their first day back on the mainland, Donna called her landlord to transfer her lease while Josh arranged for a U-Haul to get her furniture. 

Melding their lives together was the easiest thing she had ever done. They both knew each other’s like and dislikes, their habits and quirks. Once that commitment was made between the two of them to see how far this new stage of their relationship could go, everything just seemed to fall into place. Like this was how it was supposed to be all along. 

“Do you ever think what our lives would be like if we had normal jobs?” She asks, breaking their kiss. She traces her hand along the worn cotton of his old Wesleyan t-shirt. 

“Not really.” He pulls her tighter to him. “But I know that we would probably get fired because if it wasn’t for the fact that the future of the free world depended on us, there’s no way I would be letting you out of this bed today.” 

He kisses her again, and Donna rolls back into her pillow. They stay like that for longer than they should, her sinking into how warm his mouth and hands feel on her skin. 

“Mkay,” she mumbles against his lips. “We’re definitely going to be late now.” 

“Not if one of us makes the coffee while the other starts the shower.” 

He looks down at her, and she knows exactly what he’s thinking. 

“I’ll do the shower.” She sighs, moving out from under him. She sits up and swings her legs over the side of the bed. He hugs her from behind and kisses her shoulder. 

“I love you.” He says bounding up from his side of the bed. 

“You only say that now because the bathroom is ten degrees colder than the rest of the apartment.” She pulls on her socks and grabs her bathrobe from the bedpost. 

“No way.” He smiles at her from the doorway to the living room. “Unconditional love right here, baby. Now and forever.” 

As he disappears into the next room, she can’t help but let a wide smile creep across her face. 

He’d been saying that word a lot recently. “Forever.” Meaning that he was all in, that there was no backing out, that all their waiting and flirting and odd moments was worth it in the end. 

The sounds of morning cable news fill the apartment. He swears loudly as he once again overfills their coffeepot. 

She could do forever with him, she thinks, finally standing to walk into the bathroom to start her day. Forever, and maybe just a bit more. 

____________________________

_Oh, I'm gonna love you for a long time_

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! You can find me on tumblr at the same username if you want to say hi!


End file.
